Clare, age 9
Theresa, almost 7
Theresa, almost 7
Noelle, almost 4
Natalie, almost 4
THE STEFO CREW: Organized Chaos, Minus the Organization
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
September Girls
Our church has a beautiful prayer garden out back that is currently in full blooming splendor. I always say I'm going to take the girls' pictures there, but I usually let the season slip by without taking advantage. Not this year!
Monday, September 20, 2010
I Heart Headsprout
I don't want to sound like a product endorsement, but I really do heart Headsprout.
The twins are almost 4, and they have been avidly interested in letters and sounds for the past year. They know their upper- and lower-case alphabets, can write most of the letters, and know almost all of the sounds the letters make. They are also rabidly attentive whenever Theresa does her online reading lessons. I am of the school of thought that a child will best learn to read when he or she is ready. For these reasons, even though they're not yet four, I decided to try them on the Headsprout free trial.
They first started with the "Using the Mouse" primer, which teaches them to manipulate the cursor and follow simple instructions. Then it was on to the free first three lessons. The early lessons are very slow-paced, and I thought that the first three lessons would take them at least a week.
I was wrong. They tore through them in about a day-and-a-half, and then they excitedly asked for more. So I caved and purchased them a subscription (on the payment plan). It's not exactly cheap, but to my way of thinking, the Headsprout lessons can teach them more consistently than I can. I started using it with Clare in March the year the twins were born, and she was reading independently by September.
They are very excited to have their own "school" to do. I observe and guide while they do the online lessons, then we review the new sounds later. Headsprout also offers printable flash cards for review, and leveled readers so they can show off practice their new skills offline.
Theresa also has a subscription, but she dawdles and complains about it and is only on Episode 15. The twins just finished Episode 6. At this pace, the they will be reading before Theresa is, and possibly before their fourth birthday.
The twins are almost 4, and they have been avidly interested in letters and sounds for the past year. They know their upper- and lower-case alphabets, can write most of the letters, and know almost all of the sounds the letters make. They are also rabidly attentive whenever Theresa does her online reading lessons. I am of the school of thought that a child will best learn to read when he or she is ready. For these reasons, even though they're not yet four, I decided to try them on the Headsprout free trial.
They first started with the "Using the Mouse" primer, which teaches them to manipulate the cursor and follow simple instructions. Then it was on to the free first three lessons. The early lessons are very slow-paced, and I thought that the first three lessons would take them at least a week.
I was wrong. They tore through them in about a day-and-a-half, and then they excitedly asked for more. So I caved and purchased them a subscription (on the payment plan). It's not exactly cheap, but to my way of thinking, the Headsprout lessons can teach them more consistently than I can. I started using it with Clare in March the year the twins were born, and she was reading independently by September.
They are very excited to have their own "school" to do. I observe and guide while they do the online lessons, then we review the new sounds later. Headsprout also offers printable flash cards for review, and leveled readers so they can Theresa also has a subscription, but she dawdles and complains about it and is only on Episode 15. The twins just finished Episode 6. At this pace, the they will be reading before Theresa is, and possibly before their fourth birthday.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Give Us This Day Our Daily...
EGGS!
How cool is that? We've been averaging about a dozen a day for the past few weeks. The neighbor's mature hens give us nine, and our first wave of hens just reached maturity. Today is the first day we got an egg from each of all four of our oldest hens! Yay girls!
Other than than, there hasn't been much to blog about going on around here lately. I've been feeling overwhelmed by the daily grind, and nobody wants to hear me moaning. But I've been greedily stalking my old favorite blogs and discovering some new ones, so keep'em coming, people!
Friday, August 13, 2010
Memories
You know how you're a parent and your kids are little and you experience those moments that are like, "I will never forget this as long as I live?" And then, ten years later or whatever, you can't remember most of it, even all that stuff you swore would be with you forever?
I am experiencing that right now. Well, it's actually been for the past decade or so. I have things in my shoe boxes and memory folders that I have no idea why I kept, even though at the time I am sure I thought I'd always remember. I have been sifting through my memories, trying to find the ones that stand out, but unfortunately all I'm coming up with are the bad ones . . . the times I lost my temper, the times I screwed up, the times I let the birthday kid down, etc.
I've been trying to come up with some positive memories for one kid in particular, and I'm failing in a particularly bad way. Could it be that I was really such a bad parent that I can't find anything good to look back upon? This is the best that I can come up with...
After ten or twelve years (and five or six kids) in the same house with the same walls, we finally decided to upgrade the bedrooms, move the kids around to new rooms, and repaint. This one kid and I had come up with a really cool plan - walls the lightest tan possible, with a multi-colored stripe that zigged and zagged around the room. We picked this light, creamy tan color that reminded me of a cafe au lait, moved all the stuff out, primed the walls, and began to paint.
Everything went well, at first. Then the paint began to dry. It dried much darker than we ever expected. It was like buying a make up compact and putting it on, only to realize that it makes you look like you have the worst fake tan imaginable. We had such a cool paint scheme in mind, and now this dark tan was going to ruin our plan.
We decided to go and buy a lighter shade of paint, without telling (or asking) The Man In Charge, and repaint the room in secret so he would never know. Back at the paint store we picked a much better color - I think it was called Malt - but we knew it was going to be perfect.
As soon as we had the time (probably after HE was in bed) we cracked that new can open and began to repaint. Uh-oh. Something wasn't right. The new shade of paint was going over the wrong shade, all right, but the two colors were exactly the same. It was so close that we couldn't even tell where the new wet paint ended and the old dry paint began!
By then, the two of us were somewhere between shock and panic, and didn't know whether to laugh or cry. What to do now? We decided to finish putting the new paint over the old, reassuring each other that it wasn't going to be that bad, getting more and more hilarious by the moment. We finished in the wee hours and left the room and shut the door behind us, for better or worse.
In the sunshine of the next day, we were relieved to find that the paint indeed had dried lighter, and the new room was exactly the light creamy shade we had hoped for. When it was completely dry, we used masking tape to create stripes of various widths, and made the coolest stripes in shades of blue, brown and pink. It was (and probably still is) the nicest room in that house.
I love that memory.
I miss those days.
I am experiencing that right now. Well, it's actually been for the past decade or so. I have things in my shoe boxes and memory folders that I have no idea why I kept, even though at the time I am sure I thought I'd always remember. I have been sifting through my memories, trying to find the ones that stand out, but unfortunately all I'm coming up with are the bad ones . . . the times I lost my temper, the times I screwed up, the times I let the birthday kid down, etc.
I've been trying to come up with some positive memories for one kid in particular, and I'm failing in a particularly bad way. Could it be that I was really such a bad parent that I can't find anything good to look back upon? This is the best that I can come up with...
After ten or twelve years (and five or six kids) in the same house with the same walls, we finally decided to upgrade the bedrooms, move the kids around to new rooms, and repaint. This one kid and I had come up with a really cool plan - walls the lightest tan possible, with a multi-colored stripe that zigged and zagged around the room. We picked this light, creamy tan color that reminded me of a cafe au lait, moved all the stuff out, primed the walls, and began to paint.
Everything went well, at first. Then the paint began to dry. It dried much darker than we ever expected. It was like buying a make up compact and putting it on, only to realize that it makes you look like you have the worst fake tan imaginable. We had such a cool paint scheme in mind, and now this dark tan was going to ruin our plan.
We decided to go and buy a lighter shade of paint, without telling (or asking) The Man In Charge, and repaint the room in secret so he would never know. Back at the paint store we picked a much better color - I think it was called Malt - but we knew it was going to be perfect.
As soon as we had the time (probably after HE was in bed) we cracked that new can open and began to repaint. Uh-oh. Something wasn't right. The new shade of paint was going over the wrong shade, all right, but the two colors were exactly the same. It was so close that we couldn't even tell where the new wet paint ended and the old dry paint began!
By then, the two of us were somewhere between shock and panic, and didn't know whether to laugh or cry. What to do now? We decided to finish putting the new paint over the old, reassuring each other that it wasn't going to be that bad, getting more and more hilarious by the moment. We finished in the wee hours and left the room and shut the door behind us, for better or worse.
In the sunshine of the next day, we were relieved to find that the paint indeed had dried lighter, and the new room was exactly the light creamy shade we had hoped for. When it was completely dry, we used masking tape to create stripes of various widths, and made the coolest stripes in shades of blue, brown and pink. It was (and probably still is) the nicest room in that house.
I love that memory.
I miss those days.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
2011 Garden Plan
Andy, look these over and let me know your thoughts. They were too large to email.
Andy, look these over and let me know your thoughts. They were too large to email.
Andy, look these over and let me know your thoughts. They were too large to email.
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